Equities

Asset Pools : Equities

The world’s equity markets have historically been the primary source of risk capital, - around 45,000 companies have a total listed market capitalization of about US$70 trillion. In addition is the US$20 trillion in property portfolios, the privately held portion of the US$35 trillion in infrastructure assets and the US$4 trillion in private equity and venture capital.
Four key areas for aligning equity markets with sustainability are:

Mobilize more private capital into infrastructure. Review financial regulations to remove unintentional constraints on investments in sustainable infrastructure. Optimise “blended finance” approaches to ensure that good value is obtained for public spending, and to develop best practice and expertise.

Inquiry Publications

The Inquiry into the Design of a Sustainable Financial System was initiated by the United Nations Environment Programme to advance options to align the financial system with sustainable development. ‘Making Waves: Aligning the Financial System with Sustainable Development’ is its final, global report. This report reviews the Inquiry’s core analysis, summarizes progress made in aligning

The report, a companion to the second edition of “The Financial System We Need”, examines how the international financial standards currently relate to the goals of sustainable development and explores opportunities for better alignment as a way to promote greater stability, resilience and fairness to the financial system. The key messages are: Financial standards have

The report finds that China – which put green finance on the G20 agenda during its 2016 presidency – is following through on its political commitment to boost the financing required to do this. The report looks particularly at progress since the State Council in August 2016 approved a set of recommendations for action on

This paper explores whether the extent to which Regulation 28, CRISA and JSE Integrated Reporting Standards (referred to as governance policy innovations) have influenced the level of investment that integrates Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) in its decision making process. It finds that while governance innovations have increased actors’ awareness about interrelationship between ESG factors and financial performance it

This report highlights experience from France in improving the integration of sustainability issues into financial decision-making. A key area of focus has been on improving information and market analysis. Environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting requirements were first introduced in the New Economics Regulation law of 2001, and strengthened by the 2010 ‘Grenelle II’ law and 2015 the

This is the 3rd Update Report of the UNEP Inquiry, it is focused on the challenge of financing the low-carbon transition. It explores how innovative ideas and practices can be made more effective, adopted more widely, and taken to scale—and as a result move the trillions that are required. Scaling-up proven but limited innovations, is a common

Stock exchanges have historically played an important role in economic growth and development through enabling effective capital allocation. However, exchanges and markets more broadly have changed over time, in structure, inter-connectedness and rate of activity. This has happened against a backdrop of growing recognition of the unsustainability of the current economic growth path in both

Equity markets have a significant share in financial markets, with institutional investors and market-capitalization weighted indices playing a substantial role. Today’s landscape of market-capitalization weighted indices favours high-carbon sectors and creates biases against green, low-carbon technologies. As a result, institutional investors have lower exposure to the green economy, which, in the context of the transition